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Saturday, 24 January 2015

Burragorang Lookout, Nattai National Park NSW Australia.

One hour drive away from Sydney in all directions and you are in National Park territory. First time I've discovered Nattai National Park, a massive park and still very rugged. Many great walking tracks and the famous "Star Trail" track is waiting to be explored for the adventurous.

Nattai National Park is a less explore parks because most of the parks are protected by Sydney Catchment Authority. Sydney's water is supplied by Warragamba Dam and the Burragorang Lake is a big reservoir of fresh water.

I was exploring this part of Sydney on a cloudy so I converted the photo to black and white. The trick to black and white is dodging and burning. The classic dark room trick to makes the photograph stands out. Ansel Adams was the master at it and the rest of us just follow the masters that comes before us.

For this photo, I used burning more than dodging. It is so bright that I have to darken some parts down. I also contour the edges of the mountains to make it stands out even further. It is somewhat of a local sharpening trick but you use the brush tool instead of some sharpening techniques. It is more effective than the overall sharpening. You're directing where you want the viewers eyes go in your frame.

I used Adobe Lightroom 5 for local adjustment, it is adequate but not as powerful as Photoshop when it comes to local adjustments. For most editing, I'll use Lightroom and now and then I used Photoshop if Lightroom doesn't do it for me. It is cheap now to get both programs on a subscription basis and it's open the door for so many people to photography and the fun you can get out it. It's is adults back in kinder-garden again. I just love it!